Homemade bombs a rising threat in U.S.

Iraq's weapon of choice may come here

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI agree that the homemade explosive devices that have wreaked havoc in Iraq pose a rising threat to the United States. But lawmakers and first responders say the Bush administration has been slow to devise a strategy for countering the weapons and has not provided adequate money and training for a concerted national effort.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who told the Senate last month that such bombs are terrorists' "weapon of choice," said Friday at a meeting on the threat that President Bush will soon issue a blueprint for countering the threat of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. His own department said in a draft report on IEDs earlier this year that national efforts "lack strategic guidance, are sometimes insufficiently coordinated ... and lack essential resources."

Among the shortcomings identified in the report:

* Explosives-sniffing dogs are trained differently by various federal agencies, making collaboration between squads "difficult if not impossible."

Local officials say preparedness efforts around the country remain a patchwork quilt. For instance, the Los Angeles Police Department's bomb squad, which responds to about 1,000 calls a year, has 28 full-time explosives technicians and is about to move into a new $8 million downtown headquarters. The squad has an explosives library, a research facility for testing and access to an explosives range for training.

In contrast, the District of Columbia police bomb squad's 10 technicians handle 700 calls a year but are housed in portable trailers, and must also perform crime patrols. Alone among the six U.S. metropolitan regions considered top terrorist targets, the Washington-area has not earned the top rating of DHS's three-level scoring system for bomb squads, although regional officials recently decided to spend $7 million in federal grants to buy equipment to lift that rating.

Experts have struggled in reaching a consensus that the government should invest more in efforts to detect and disrupt bomb plots in advance, and not just buy equipment and training that could keep specific devices from exploding in metropolitan regions.

Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General William E. Moschella said of the forthcoming strategy that "it's late and we wish we were two months earlier, but the bottom line is we have submitted ... a product [to the White House] that we're very proud of."

Although the presidential document has been under preparation since February, Chertoff said, "we haven't waited for the paperwork ... because my concern, frankly, is not words; it's deeds and actions." He said his department has provided $1.7 billion in grants related to the IED threat, trained workers at 16 ports and deployed thousands of new explosives detectors at airports.

While the roadside bombs and armor-piercing charges have become the signature weapons of the Iraqi insurgency, U.S. officials define the domestic IED threat across a wide spectrum, including a block of TNT set with a remote-control detonator; a fertilizer bomb delivered by a car, truck or plane; and a suicide runner carrying a peroxide-based explosive. At the extreme, IEDs can be enhanced into a "dirty bomb," rigged to scatter radioactive material.